The laboratory at Galway University Hospitals has begun COVID-19 testing using a new high-throughput molecular PCR machine. The new equipment will enable the laboratory to process up to 500 swabs from patients per day, with a turnaround of approximately 3 hours per batch. Until now the laboratory was carrying out COVID-19 batch testing on two separate machines with a turnaround of up to 10 hours and a maximum of 300 tests per day.
Maria Molloy, Laboratory Manager at GUH said, “The new equipment is not only faster and capable of processing more tests, it will also allow us to be more flexible when testing. Previously we had to test in large batches of almost 100 samples at a time, but now we can test as few as 12 samples and load the machine like a conveyor belt as we receive the tests throughout the day. We can even programme the equipment to skip ahead to any urgent tests in the process queue.
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